As Good As She
by that is secret
Summary: Saitou compares Kaoru to Tokio; a fic for all the Tokio-lovers out there. [represent! ^_^]


A/N: I notice that most people seem to either dislike Tokio or just forget about her. Since she never actually appears in the series, it's easy to do that; but personally, I think that any woman who's stuck with Saitou - who is both difficult and demanding - would have to be a great woman. I can't see him with a submissive woman, nor can I see him standing for a total bitch. So here, we have Saitou comparing Kaoru to Tokio.  
  
"As Good As She"  
  
He watches her. Not with his predatory look, although it's difficult to take the wolf from his eyes. No, he just watches her, curious and thinking.   
  
She could end up a good woman, this Kamiya girl. She is bold - perhaps a bit *too* bold, he always thinks, when he sees her clock Kenshin for some perceived wrong - but boldness is always a good thing to have. She is courageous, she has a sense of justice, and she is actually rather polite. She has the tenacity to keep the dojo running, even if she is "only" a girl.   
  
Saitou has to admit that he admires her.   
  
The tanuki - and he wonders if she is as sexually frenzied as a tanuki, because he can see an interesting life for Kenshin if that is the case - has some problems, of course. He has sampled her cooking, and would rather die than submit himself to that torture again. She is a taskmaster; he's heard Yahiko's complaints, and he can't entirely blame the child, even if he knows that Kaoru is doing what she should. And he can't help but wonder why Kenshin *always* does the laundry and cleaning. Sure, he knows that it's the equivalent of a rent payment, but he wonders about what will happen after the inevitable marriage between the two.   
  
Something tells him that Kenshin will still be up to his elbows in sudsy water.   
  
But she's still a good girl, even if she can't cook noodles to save her life, even if she's a bit naive and headstrong and tempermental. He remembers another woman who was like that, except for the cooking. Another woman with a red-hot temper and bold eyes and a smile. She had insults that stung as bad as his; jibes that still cut through the skin. He remembers entire evenings spent insulting each other - not to hurt or anger, but just to see who could best the other.  
  
He remembers losing quite a few times.   
  
Yes, she was almost exactly like the Kamiya girl, and she turned out better than anyone could have imagined. It was her soul, her warrior spirit, that turned her into the gem she is. Saitou does not count himself an expert on women, but he has decided that a woman with no fight in her is little better than an animated doll. Oh, yes, that woman has calmed some; the evenings of insults occur less often, and she hits him less often, but she still has the same spirit.   
  
He is broken from his musings when a bokken slams into his skull.   
  
"What are you doing, you idiot?" The Kamiya girl glares at him. He gets up from his seat on the veranda of the dojo, glances at Kenshin being chased by those two little girls; he has been doing an admirable parody of Sano, sitting here on the porch and doing nothing.   
  
He considers threatening to arrest her for assaulting a police offer, but instead says, "If you turn out half as well as she did, the Battousai will be able to count himself a lucky man."  
  
She gives him a queer look. "What does that mean?" A faint blush crosses her cheeks at the mention of the relationship between herself and Kenshin.   
  
"Exactly what it says."   
  
Another queer look, and a sigh as she gives up on trying to explain his mysterious compliment. "Are you staying for dinner?"   
  
Surprised, he looks down at her. He'd come to speak to Kenshin, although chores had kept him away for the past hour. He'd entertained no ideas of dinner. "No," he says, smiling. "I have a previous engagement."  
  
After all, she probably wouldn't appreciate it if he came home late. And he liked to please her, because he loved the smiles he got when he did. There is also the fact that, if the tanuki is cooking, he knows he'll find himself running in the other direction as quickly as possible. He turns to leave, since he has now been reminded of the time; he will return tomorrow to speak to the Battousai.   
  
"Who is she?"   
  
The question makes him stop in his tracks. "Who is who?"   
  
"The woman you mentioned."   
  
A smile that none of them can see, and he is glad that they can't, because it is too soft for the Wolf of Mibu's face. "Her name is Tokio. One of the finest women in Japan."   
  
And he leaves the Kamiya girl puzzled, wondering where she'd heard that name before, and goes home to the wife waiting there. His steps are quick as he walks.  
  
There is no reason to keep his Tokio waiting.   
  
:::tokio r0x0r::: 


End file.
